Visiting the Moche Ruins 100-800 AD

Outside of the city of Trujillo, along the northern coast of Peru in the 1980's, a farm woman's chickens were pecking at the barren ground and dug up what looked like a nugget of gold. This captured the interest of the woman and her son and after some investigation they realized they had begun to uncover an ancient civilization that flourished briefly about two thousand years ago between 100 and 800 AD, a mere blip in the sands of time.  Known as the Moche people, they had no written language but they recorded their history through pictographs and paintings on the walls of their sacred sites, or "huacas" and on countless pots and other vessels as well as through carvings on jewelry, helmets and other artifacts. A bellicose society, they fought amongst themselves since there were no natural human enemies in the area and the victors would use the vanquished as human sacrifices, chaining them together naked before throwing them off the mountain and drinking their collected blood from golden cups. And that was one of their more merciful ways of death. The Moche were eventually wiped out by a thirty year El Nino followed by a thirty year drought which destroyed their crops and other means of survival.  

The Temple of the Moon is made up of millions of individually made adobe bricks each signed by its maker.  Before excavation, this pyramid was covered in sand and assumed to be a mountain. There is a corresponding Temple of the Sun opposite.  Twenty-five thousand Moche lived in the city between the two temples. Trujillo lies in the background.

Some decorative paintings on the interior walls of the Temple of the Moon.

This mural intricately illustrates the Moche way of life--the king, the warriors, the methods of torture and sacrifice used on the victims, the sexual perversions, the animal gods and so forth.  Only an archaeologist could interpret these meanings however. They certainly weren't clear to me.

I think this is the tugboat that escorted us out of the port of Salaverry, near Trujillo and the Moche excavations.

It took about 40 minutes to drive from the port to the area of the Moche ruins.  At face value, it is a bleak, poor part of the country with adobe huts and cardboard shacks along the road, small packs of wild dogs, and miles of arid, brown, sandy soil.  There are crops being grown--asparagus, corn, mangoes, avocados, and the guide told us the area is a large exporter of leather goods--but the pockets of development are few and mostly the people seem to be living hand-to-mouth.  There is precious little rain and how they irrigate the crops is beyond me.   The Moche ruins have not been worked on for more than a year because private funds as well as government allotments have dried up, and international organizations have not stepped up to the plate sufficiently. They are trying to become a World Heritage site but the competition for available funds becomes greater and greater as technology for excavations improves. 

After touring the site, we went to an outdoor restaurant that served pisco sours, sparkling wine, delicious and varied hors d'oeuvres, and we watched a demonstration of Peruvian Paso horses, especially bred for their grace and beauty, and some "Marinero" dancers typical to this area of Peruvian culture--all fun and nicely done. The local people are definitely trying to promote tourism around the Moche attraction and this could be their ticket out of their long cycle of poverty.  Send money.

Now it is Friday, Nov. 5 and we are off on another adventure.   Later, I must tell you about the fabulous food we have eaten aboard the Explorer thus far! 

Isla Lobos de Tierra and the Blue Footed Boobies

(Note: I apologize for the duplication in yesterday's post--I can't seem to fix it without threat of total disaster--the internet here has been a challenge.)

Yesterday, our first full day aboard ship, was a sea day, which gave us a chance to re-group and catch our breath after our time in Guayaquil.  The day before, our driver Antonio had picked us up at the hotel to deliver us to the port, but Maybell had warned us that he would not be able to accompany us past the "second gate".  She gave us careful instructions about what to do once inside the two gates: walk 50 yards or so schlepping the bags, find the "orange bus" (be sure it is ORANGE), proceed to the ship and hope for the best. She wasn't able to come because she was meeting a group of Germans from our ship the Explorer who had at the last minute engaged her services for the day.  How hard could it be?

When Antonio arrived, Jose was with him saying that he was a friend of Maybell and would help us find the ship.  All I can say is had he not been there, it never would have happened.  When we finally reached the port security gate, a flurry of Spanish ensued and Antonio and Jose talked their way into the inner sanctum which is the port.   There were crowds of people and chaotic traffic within its boundaries and eventually we were unloaded into a group of people all seemingly bound for different destinations.  Another flurry of Spanish and some arm-waving and suddenly our bags were loaded onto a luggage mover, Jose and Antonio were saying goodbye and we were going through yet another security check-point.  We had no idea what was happening, I had little faith that we would end up in the right place, but miraculously a Silversea crew member appeared to put us on the right path.  Chaos magically disappeared and soon we were inside the ship and shown to our suites.  Dinner that night was an Ecuadorian tasting menu featuring delectable prawns prepared several different ways.  

I was looking forward to the sea day--nothing to do but gaze at the ocean and hope to catch a glimpse of a whale or a pod of dolphins.  We actually did see several humpbacks and hundreds of dolphins very close to the ship.  But mostly we were busy with a mandatory Zodiak briefing, a run-down of the schedule for the coming two weeks, a cooking demonstration about the prominence of bananas and plantains in Ecuadorian cooking and a lecture on the Moche civilization, an extinct people who dominated the coast of Peru from about AD 100 to AD 750.  They were quite a sadistic lot and we were treated to gory descriptions of their ritualistic human sacrifices and some rather odd sexual practices.  This was to prepare us for a visit to their ancient site tomorrow.  More about them later.

But today was our first taste of what an expedition cruise is all about.  After cruising 230 nautical miles from Guayaquil, the ship stopped in the middle of the ocean and this morning we boarded Zodiaks for a ten minute ride to Isla Lobos de Tierra, home to thousands of Peruvian pelicans and blue-footed boobies, and a smattering of vultures and sea lions.

  

Blue footed boobies...

Thousands of Peruvian Pelicans...

And wonderful shrimp for lunch on the deck

We were back before noon and enjoyed a bloody Mary and the freshest grilled shrimp on the deck where we were treated to yet another romp by a couple of humpback whales.  

The ride in the Zodiak was quite interesting.  We were instructed exactly what to do but the sea was choppy and the thing bobbed furiously when I was trying to transfer from the tiny platform on the ship into the rubber raft.  We were wearing the mandatory Zodiak lifevests, plus our complimentary Silversea backpacks as well as our water shoes because this was to be a "wet landing".  This means that on the island we had to jump into the water and walk ashore.  Those of you who know me know I am not the most athletic person in the world, plus arthritis has squelched my more limber days, but I'm proud to say I made it without disgracing myself.  One lady literally had to be picked up and unceremoniously dumped into the raft when she couldn't quite make it on her own.

  

Tuesday, November 1, 2016: our first full day aboard the Silversea Explorer

We flew Saturday from Dallas, to Miami, and on to Guayaquil, not bad flights as flights go and we landed before I got around to sleeping in spite of the late hour.  We didn’t lay our heads on our pillows, however, until after 3 AM Sunday morning.  Our enthusiastic and cheerful guide Maybell and our driver Antonio had met us at the airport, settled us into the hotel and then set the time for our tour of Guayaquil the next day—blessedly not too early.  We gamely rose, breakfasted and had already explored the Municipal Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul and its adjacent park just across the street before they picked us up.  The park, dedicated to the Liberator Simon Bolivar is also known as the Park of the Iguanas because of the large number of the giant lizards who live there.  Full of people freely petting and feeding the iguanas as well as the squirrels and pigeons, I was wondering whether their beds are lice-infested or whether these creatures are cleaner than the ones we have in American parks.  One lady was caressing a large squirrel and letting it crawl all over her head and hair.  This gave me the willies.   

I'm having technical difficulties as usual, and these pictures are meant to be posted below the ones of the Iguana park and the Cathedral.  After we were picked up by the vivacious Maybell, we drove through Guayaquil's Flower Market where these sweet ladies posed for a picture.  Ecuador is the world's third largest producer of cut flowers, 73% of which are roses and there are flower stands and flowers everywhere in profusion.

We toured an amazing cemetery which dates back to 1842 and considered one of the most beautiful in South America. We have been to Evita's burial place in Buenos Aires and this certainly is more beautiful.   It seems to cover miles of territory and is home to elaborate mausoleums made of Carrera marble, classical monuments, endless rows of columbaria and simple graves which appear to have been hand carved by the families.   

Then we drove to the highest point in Guayaquil, Santa Ana Hill, where we had been warned by Maybell that visiting it involved walking up 444 steps, but that it was worth it for the magnificent panoramic view of the city.  Along the way, a couple of us threatened to abandon the effort, but we all made it and we were thrilled that we had hung in there.  The climb itself is very interesting, the stairs flanked with pastel painted shops, apartments and restaurants (though no place to stop for a glass of wine), and our reward at the top is a charming plaza with a lighthouse and small colonial chapel. The 360 degree view includes the delightful colonial neighborhood called Las Penas, shown below, as well as the favelas along the hillside which are the colorful symbol of Guayaquil.  You can see the port with its sophisticated boardwalk called the Malencon and of course everything is ablaze with bougainvillea, roses and flowers whose names I will never know.   

You can't see it but step # 158 is the next group of steps.  Each step is numbered 1-444, a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it.  

Don and Gwenna walking up the final group of steps